RIPENING, STORAGE, AND HANDLING OF APPLES 59 



rooms. For best results in common-storage holding of the better- 

 keeping varieties, picking should be delayed as long as the fruit is 

 holding well on the tree or until danger of freezing is serious. 



As mentioned in Parts I and II of this bulletin, certain varieties 

 of apples under certain conditions tend to develop physiological 

 breakdown in storage. This occurs so frequently in Jonathans that 

 it has been termed "Jonathan breakdown," although many other 

 varieties are also somewhat susceptible to the trouble. It has been 

 shown that this breakdown is closely associated with leaving the 

 fruit on the trees too long and usually is particularly serious when 

 the apples ripen early following a long growing season. 



Obviously, for varieties susceptible to this trouble late picking is 

 not feasible. Fortunately, those varieties well adapted to common- 

 storage holding seldom are affected in this way. Breakdown of 

 this type rarely occurs in Winesap, York Imperial, Yellow New- 

 town, Ben Davis, Arkansas Black, and other good common-storage 

 varieties of the Southern or Pacific coast growing regions, or in 

 Baldwin, Stark, Northern Spy, or Ben Davis in the Northeastern 

 States. For varieties well adapted to common-storage holding it 

 appears that delaying picking as long as possible will give best 

 results. 



The time of ripening of apples, which varies from season to sea- 

 son, is also of great importance in the handling of fruit in common 

 storage. A season when the fruit ripens late will prove especially 

 satisfactory. On the other hand, if the fruit matures particularly 

 early very unsatisfactory results may be expected even from varieties 

 which normally do well in common storage. During the season of 

 1921, for example, apples in New York State matured very early, 

 and varieties such as Baldwin, which normally hold satisfactorily 

 in common storage, softened very quickly and soon became unmar- 

 ketable. In 1924 a similar condition prevailed in the Pacific North- 

 west, with unsatisfactory results from common storage. It is at 

 once apparent that if apples normally picked the latter part of Octo- 

 ber are picked the first of October they are exposed to from three to 

 four weeks of high temperatures in storage to which late-picked ap- 

 ples are not subjected. Consequently, poor results will necessarily 

 be obtained in common storage when the picking season is abnor- 

 mally early. 



REMOVING THE FRUIT TO THE COMMON-STORAGE HOUSE 



The data in Figures 29 and 30 are of particular interest in con- 

 nection with the necessity of removing fruit to the storage house fol- 

 lowing picking. Fruit held in the orchard did not soften more 

 rapidly than fruit held in common storage. That held in the orchard 

 in shade averaged an even slightly firmer condition than fruit held 

 for this same period of time under common-storage conditions. 

 Since the temperatures prevailing in common-storage houses as now 

 constructed usually are not below the mean of the outdoor tempera- 

 tures and often are somewhat above the mean of those prevailing 

 outside, it is apparent that fruit protected from rain and sunshine, 

 even though remaining outside, is in about as satisfactory a storage 

 condition as fruit placed in the average air-cooled storage. 



